Well, its the end of September, and the end of The Minimalist Game. I’m typing this on the Keychron K3 I am testing still works after sitting in my closet for two years. I just sold it on eBay for $31 as part of the game.
I say this is the end but this is the end of the game. I still need to drop this stuff off at various recycling centers and goodwill. Look at all this crap:
Links to Week 1 , Week 2, Week 3, Week 4.
And I haven’t even really touched the garage. 😀
This post is about the last two days but I think I’ll reflect on the overall experience. It wasn’t easy at times, but it was worth it. I found that making time for decluttering the space slowly, and ramping up the number of items helped me slowly change my perception around my belongings. And I really had to work up to it. It was a process that took place over time. I now think differently about the items in my house and the value they have. I am focused less on how much I paid and what I consider the value of the item. If something has been in a box for two years…is it valuable to me really? Is the value of having it ‘just in case i need it’ really worth it?
Aspirational Identity
The last day involved overcoming some ideas about who I am vs. who I would like to be. But I would like to be a lot of things: an artist, a musician, a conservationist, a game developer, an inventor.
And one of those things that I’d love to be is an electrical engineer. I’ve seriously considered going back to school for it, possibly interning somewhere, but it has remained more of a dream than a reality. I have a lot of ideas for products that I’ve never been able to build.
I think part of this stems from seeing other people doing amazing things and wanting to do it, too. Being able to do everything I see on youtube is not a realistic goal. This is something I need to actively tell myself.
And so I have a lot of electronics stuff hanging out in storage bins. Capacitors, pots, resistors, LEDs, boost/buck converters, etc. Some of these bins I haven’t opened in years. Things I haven’t opened since I moved into this house in 2021.
There is a part of me that still wants to be an electrical engineer, and getting rid of this stuff is saying that dream will never happen. And that kind of hurts. Its like a failure. Its a dream that has kind of died.
Its things like this that help align my brain more with reality: I have too many interests, and the broader the focus the thinner I spread myself. Time to reign it in and focus on the things that matter most.
Day 29
Since I *cough* accidentally did Day 17 twice, this means that I only did 12 items for Day 29. From my larger ‘bike parts cull’ I had exactly 12 items so it felt destined.
Day 30
I wanted to go out with a bang, and so here we go:
- A Heinz Soup Machine – This is an old machine that would heat up a cup of soup in ‘only 2 minutes’ before microwaves. The timer is hooked up to a switch. Its fully functional and I’ve used it to heat my coffee for the past ten years. Its time to move on.
- A broken robovacuum
- A box for a non-broken robovacuum.
- Lots of PC parts and cables. Whenever you buy a motherboard or something, you get a lot of random cables. This stuff builds up over times.
And here is a box full of all kinds of electronics parts that I have not touched in years. I’m sure at some point I’ll kick myself next time I need a 10K resistor…but if that day comes, I’ll go pick some up off eBay.
